MSI GT80

MSI GT80 Review – Welcome to the biggest, baddest gaming laptop money can buy. With a huge 18.4 inch display, it’s big enough to fit a full-sized SteelSeries mechanical keyboard, and it’s great to see MSI has used Cherry MX keys. Weighing a hefty 4.5kg it’s not exactly portable, but the specs inside more than justify its weight.

MSI GT80, Absolutely insane

The powerful Intel i7-4720HQ processor’s quad cores hit 3.6GHz under load, and MSI has paired it with not one, but two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs in SLI mode. Even The Witcher 3 will run like a dream on this configuration, with all settings maxed, which has to be a first for a gaming laptop. 16GB of DDR3 memory is plenty, while longterm storage is well catered for with 485GB of RAID 0 SSD storage, along with another 675GB of mechanical storage. SoundBlaster takes care of the audio needs, delivering some of the best laptop audio we’ve heard. Killer’s brand new DoubleShot Pro handles both Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

If there’s one flaw with this laptop, it’s the 1080p resolution of the display. Considering it’s almost 19 inches across, this is a tiny bit low; we’d have much preferred a 2560 x 1440 display, especially considering the dual GTX 980M GPUs could easily power it. It’s also mind-blowingly expensive. However, if money is no obstacle and you want the most powerful gaming laptop on the market, look no further than the GT80.